FIRST LOVE
by aGirlWithNoName
Summary: Truly loving another means letting go of all expectations. It means full acceptance, even celebration of another's personhood.


**My very FIRST one-shot...so be easy on me...**

**PLEASE REVIEW:D thanks**

**DISCLAIMER: SADLY, I DO NOT OWN GAKUEN ALICE... **

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**FIRST LOVE**

**_T_**_ruly loving another means letting go of all expectations._

_It means full acceptance, even celebration of another's personhood._

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Natsume and I, Mikan, were never really boyfriend and girlfriend. He was three-and-a-half years older than I, which was a lot when I still didn't need to wear a bathing suit top.

We grew up around the pool and tennis courts of a country club. He was an excellent tennis player with sure, calm strides and a powerful stroke.

When I had to take a time out from swimming and diving because my lips had turned blue, I sat on the grass wrapped in a towel and watched the tennis matches. Later in the day, the guys would come to the pool and hoist the girls on their shoulders for water fights.

I liked it best on Natsume's shoulders which were broad. I felt safe.

At sixteen his parents allowed him to drive during the day, and he often brought me home in his black Mercedes Benz. The autumn after I turned fourteen, he started asking if I wanted to go to a late-afternoon movie with him.

I wanted to say yes, but then I would get this jumpy feeling in my stomach and always change my mind.

His tantalizing crimson eyes looked into mine, both pleasing and frightening me.

Gradually I stayed longer in his car, talking about things that troubled me like family and some other more.

My half older sister, which was Hotaru Imai, had lots of boyfriends, and although I worshipped her, she mostly didn't want anything to do with me. Then there were the intrigues around who was dating whom and which friends I trusted and why.

A lot of my pain centered around my relationship with my parents, who had divorced when I was eleven and remarried when I was thirteen.

I didn't know anyone else with a broken family, and I felt ashamed and unsure of myself, like I wasn't as good as the other kids. I could talk with Natsume about all this.

He was reassuring, and I began to trust him.

As time passed, I was ready to go to the movies with him. We also enjoyed hanging out at my house, where we would go down to the television room in the basement.

I loved to watch TV with Natsume so that I could cuddle with him on the couch.

We were a strange pair.

He loved sports, while I loved the arts.

Hotaru and the others made fun of his sports obsession. I guess I would have preferred artistic, but no one else cared about me the way he did.

When **HE KISSED ME** for the very first time, we were at his house during a thunderstorm, watching baseball game on television.

He looked at me with those wonderful eyes...

I ran up to my sister's room when I got home. I must have looked goofy as I stood in her doorway and announced.

" HE KISSED ME!"

" Who?" She asked me.

" NATSUME KISSED ME!."

" So?" She said. " Was that the first time?"

" Yeah," I nodded.

" What have you guys been doing all this time?" She demanded.

Natsume dated other girls, and I went out with other boys.

But I hated their sweaty palms and was horrified when a blind date tried to put his tongue in my mouth.

Only Natsume understood that I needed to move slowly, and he was always very patient with me.

Even though Natsume reassured me many times that our relationship was special by saying, " It doesn't matter whether or not I have a girlfriend or you have a boyfriend; I will always be there for you," I still got jealous when I saw him interested in someone else.

Natsume got engaged to a girl from out of town when I was nineteen. I was the only unmarried, unrelated girl at the wedding.

As the bride and groom said good-bye to everyone, Natsume came over to me and kissed me on the cheek.

" I love you, and I'll always will." He said.

He remained true to his word. When I needed to talk to someone, he was there.

I got jealous sometimes when I thought of him loving and being romantic with his wife, but that changed as she and I became friends.

I moved across the country and only saw Natsume occasionally, at the club when I returned to visit my family.

Now we sat at the pool and watched his kids swimming.

Our lives were very different.

I thought probably wouldn't have much more than a half hour's worth of conversation to share with him, but I always felt a current of love go through me when I saw him.

When I was twenty-seven, my father died. The morning before his funeral, I thought to myself,

_' I wonder if Natsume knows.'_

We hadn't seen each other or spoken for years.

After the service the next day, as I was talking with the many friends and family who had come for the funeral, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned and saw those loving crimson eyes.

" Are you alright?" He asked. I nodded. Putting both hands on my shoulders, he held me, looking into my eyes.

**No one had ever understood the bond between us.**

**I'm not sure that we did. **

**But, it was, and will always be, there.**

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**How was that?! PLEASE READ AND REVIEW...THANKS GUYS! **


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